THE SPECTACLE is almost bizarre: a political party refuses to accept new members. And not just a few individuals, but tens of thousands. And not just any party, but the Likud (“Unification”), the main force in Israel’s governing coalition. Strange? But there is method in this madness. It may soon come before Israel’s highest court. … Read more
I DON’T know when the wheel was invented, or who invented it. I DON’T know when the wheel was invented, or who invented it. However, I have no doubt that it was invented again and again, with many happy inventors sharing the glory. The same is true for the Israeli-Palestinian Confederation. From time to time … Read more
THE VULTURES are circling. They can see the wounded man on the ground, and are waiting for his end. So are the human carnivores – the politicians. They sing his praises, swear to defend him with all their heart – but in their heads they are already calculating who might be his successor. Each of … Read more
THE WHOLE world watched with bated breath while the days passed. Then the hours. Then the minutes. The world watched while the condemned man, Muhammad Abu-Ali of Qalqiliya, waited for his execution. Abu-Ali was a convicted terrorist. He had bought a knife and killed four members of a family in a nearby Jewish settlement. He … Read more
MY LATE friend, Nathan Yellin-Mor, the political leader of the LEHI underground, once told me that a certain politician is “not a great thinker and not a small fool.” I remember that sentence every time I think about Gilad Erdan, our Minister of Public Security. His part in the events of the last few weeks, … Read more
GEORGE SOROS, the American multi-billionaire, is causing Binyamin Netanyahu a lot of trouble. At this particular moment, Netanyahu does not need any more trouble. A huge corruption affair, concerning German-built submarines, is rolling slowly and inexorably towards him. Soros is a Hungarian Jew, a Holocaust survivor. The Hungarian governing party plastered his face all over … Read more
THE WHOLE thing could have been a huge practical joke, if it had not been real. All of Israel was taken in. Left, right and center. All the newspapers and TV networks, without exception. There it was: UNESCO has declared that the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron is a Palestinian heritage site. I ADMIT that … Read more
I HAVE a unique confession to make: I like Gaza. Yes, I like this far-away corner of Palestine, the narrow strip on the way to Egypt, in which two million human beings are crowded, and which is closer to hell than to heaven. My heart goes out to them. I HAVE spent quite a lot … Read more
CONAN DOYLE, the creator of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, would have titled his story about this incident “The Bizarre Case of Bashar al-Assad”. And bizarre it is. It concerns the evil deeds of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, who bombed his own people with Sarin, a nerve gas, causing gruesome deaths of the victims. Like … Read more
When a Briton or American speaks about a “four-letter word”, he means a vulgar sexual term, a word not to be mentioned in polite society. In Israel we also have such a word, a word of four letters. A word not to mention. This word is “Shalom”, peace. (In Hebrew, “sh” is one letter, and … Read more